[vishnu]

If you're not pushing the envelope you're not learning anything, right? Now who's gonna clean up the mess...     😁

[Irinikus]

What happened there?

[vishnu]

What happened there?

Our ultra high density charger failed. The space claim we were given was very small so we had to push it hard, and it said "no." 🤪

   

[Irinikus]

That looks to be pretty catastrophic!!!!

High density charger for what? (That's one pretty heavy-duty power coupling!!!)

[vishnu]

Ha ha Mr. Observant, for the capacitor directly to the left! 😝 😂 🙃

[Irinikus]

Ha ha Mr. Observant, for the capacitor directly to the left! 😝 😂 🙃

That big cap must be used to power something, maybe a smaller-scale "Portable" railgun?

[vishnu]

That big cap must be used to power something, maybe a smaller-scale "Portable" railgun?

Our railgun charge modules have 100 capacitors each, and we made five of them. So 500 capacitors participate in every individual railgun firing. This was just a one-off single capacitor test to see how much power generation we could jam into how small of a space. Needless to say, the generator gave up and expunged its magic smoke... 😆

[Irinikus]

That big cap must be used to power something, maybe a smaller-scale "Portable" railgun?

Our railgun charge modules have 100 capacitors each, and we made five of them. So 500 capacitors participate in every individual railgun firing. This was just a one-off single capacitor test to see how much power generation we could jam into how small of a space. Needless to say, the generator gave up and expunged its magic smoke... 😆

Cool, How much capacitance are we talking? (What's the rating on each capacitor?)

There appears to be quite a bit of logic circuitry in that unit?

---

I've always been fascinated by railgun's!

Many years ago I modelled the barrel for a railgun concept (In 3D Studio Max) which was made up of a series of self reinforcing coils (My thought being that the Lorentz force would be stronger if the radius of the coil was kept tighter), separated by ceramic dielectric spacers along the length of the barrel.

It also had a slight bit of twist in it, only a few degrees along its length, to help keep the sabot round (graphite ceramic composite) in constant contact with the rails as it travelled down the barrel.

The individual "coil"sections of the barrel powered by their own capacitor banks, eliminating the need for complex switching circuitry.

The round would be forced into the breech of the barrel pneumatically. (Initiating its travel down the barrel.)

I unfortunately don't have this model saved, so I must maybe think of rebuilding it.

[vishnu]

The problem with capacitors is their energy density sucks. In the 80s, DoD paid Maxwell Labs vast fortunes to develop higher energy density capacitor technology, and they failed. Another problem with capacitor based weapon technology is that the customers aren't really interested. We doubled the muzzle energy of the Navy's standard 5-inch deck mount gun using capacitor-based electro-thermal technology ignition, the Navy wasn't interested. We did the same thing with the Army's M8 Thunderbolt, we integrated our capacitor-based electro-thermal ignition system with the Army's autoloader, and significantly surpassed the muzzle energy of the weapon's conventional ammunition. Again, the Army wasn't interested. We built those power modules for the Navy's railgun, but really, the only people in the Navy that were interested in the railgun were the ONR (Office of Naval Research) employees who were working on it. The whole rest of the Navy Department tried their mightiest to get the program canceled, so far they haven't succeeded but they might as well have because the program is now on indefinite hiatus. But we aren't the only ones developing electro-thermal ignition technology, the French, Germans, Russians, Chinese and the Israelis all have their fingers in the pie, but if our DoD doesn't get their butts in gear those guys are going run up over our backsides and disappear over the horizon in front of us... ☹️

[Irinikus]

Is there any scope for emptying railgun's as indirect weapons? Using "smart" rounds? (laser-guided sniper weapons?)